Increases in data-intensive video traffic signal both an enhancement of and a substitute for conventional broadcast cable access technologies. However, data-intensive video traffic can strain existing infrastructure and frustrate new infrastructure planning efforts because previously known network management methods do not consider user experience metrics. According to previously known network management methods a network is generally managed based on bandwidth utilization, with nominal levels of bandwidth allocated to client devices. Bandwidth allocations are often tied to a subscription tier model, where client devices in each tier receive a respective bandwidth allocation for a corresponding cost. While these known methods are convenient to administer, there are a number of unresolved problems.
Existing systems use encoding bitrate values as a surrogate for perceptual playback quality metrics. However, perceptual playback quality can vary within a fixed allocation of bandwidth based on the complexity of media content data and client device resource constraints. That is, the respective perceptual playback qualities achieved by different client devices that are each allocated the same amount of bandwidth may be different based on the respective complexities of the media content and/or device resource constraints of each client device. Another problem is that bandwidth is inefficiently used and often fails to support sufficient playback quality. For example, as a result of providing a group of client devices the same nominal allocations of bandwidth, some client devices are provided with more bandwidth than needed to satisfy perceptual playback quality preferences, and other client devices are not provided enough bandwidth to satisfy perceptual playback quality preferences.
As such, network operators cannot adequately monitor and manage existing infrastructure, adequately plan new infrastructure deployments, or adequately constrain the operation of adaptive bit rate (ABR) enabled client devices that share network resources.
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